


System Online

by steggyisimmortal



Category: Iron Man (Movies)
Genre: F/M, Jarvis is the only AI forever because he's the best, some highly theoretical science is going on here, the majority of CACW never happened because it's stupid
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-25
Updated: 2018-12-25
Packaged: 2019-09-22 11:31:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,404
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17058992
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/steggyisimmortal/pseuds/steggyisimmortal
Summary: Pepper has always told him she doesn't want a suit of armor.  Tony has always done an excellent job of ignoring her directives.





	System Online

**Author's Note:**

  * For [karenninaaa](https://archiveofourown.org/users/karenninaaa/gifts).



> This is my very first full length Pepperony fic. It was written for the Pepperony Gift Exchange on Tumblr. This fic takes place over the span of Iron Man 2 until Infinity War.

* * *

 

The first time he brought it up, Pepper thought he was joking.  She assumed it was just more of his ramblings, talking aloud about any and every thought that passed through his brain every two seconds.  Considering they were in the workshop at the time, she hadn’t given his words a second thought.  They’d barely been dating for two months at the time.  Pepper had been more concerned with putting his house back together after his destructive birthday.

 

When he brought it up again a few months later, on date night no less, she knew he wasn’t going to let it go until she said yes.

 

It was a good thing she was well versed at telling him no.

 

“Please?”

 

“No.”

 

“Come on! It’s fun! You won’t regret it.”

 

Pepper sincerely doubted that.  She had long since run out of hands to count the number of times she regretted saying yes to various ideas of his. 

 

“Pep.”

 

“No, Tony.”

 

His noise of displeasure made her roll her eyes.  She often wondered how many people had ever told him no on a continuous basis throughout his life. 

 

“Why not?”

 

She was probably the only one. 

 

“Because I don’t want one!  How many times do I have to say that?”

 

Jarvis’ voice interjected before Tony.  “The current number is 16, Ms. Potts.”

 

Pepper stifled a sigh.  “Thank you, Jarvis.”

 

Tony continued, ignoring the AI.

 

“But Pepper, it could be like a side job—”

 

“Tony, I have a job—”

 

“—that we do together—”

 

“—a very important job running a company—"

 

“—when the call comes in—"

 

“—and it keeps me plenty busy—”

 

“—we’d suit up together—"

 

“—so I don’t need you coming into my office—”

 

“—and save people, or really anything—"

 

“—every twenty minutes with a new argument—”

 

“—although that video was embarrassing—"

 

“—about why I’d be the Iron Maiden—"

 

“—because that cat wasn’t even stuck—”

 

“—to your Iron Man—"

 

“—and it scratched me, too.”

 

“—and create the next Iron Age.”

 

They stared at one another for a long moment, neither one willing to cave.

 

“It’s just a play on words,” he said finally. 

 

Sighing patiently, Pepper smiled thinly at him.  “I know.”

 

“We can find a different name,” he continued brightly.  He started gesturing with his hands, a sure sign he was frustrated his message wasn’t being heard.  “You can pick it if you want.”

 

“Tony, I don’t want to pick a name.  I don’t want a suit.  I just want to finish this work so that we can go to dinner and have an enjoyable weekend with no Iron Man and no work.”

 

“Well, I am Iron Man so technically—"

 

Her restrained sigh told him his chances of having sex during the weekend would drastically decrease with every word.  Sensing he wasn’t going to get any further, he rolled his eyes and tossed his hands.

 

“Ugh, fine.”

 

She watched his back retreat from her office.  There was no way that would be the last of it.

 

* * *

 

It was a given that danger was all around at any given time.  Disease, accidents, belligerent people – a number of scenarios that could cause demise whenever circumstances aligned.  Most people didn’t give it a second thought.  They simply carried on about their lives knowing the odds were more than likely in their favor.

 

However, most people had probably never seen an alien army flying in space just waiting their turn to fly through the worm hole and destroy life on Earth. 

 

Tony was paranoid.

 

The planet had been safe for a few months.  The Department of Damage Control had the city firmly in hand.  The sports stadiums had been set up as makeshift hospitals once the hospitals themselves could take no more people, emergency workers from far and wide coming to their aide.  Notices were put out every day of people found and people confirmed dead.  The citizens of New York were trying to pick up and move on.

 

The nightmares started a month ago. 

 

He tried to ignore them.  He was used to going without sleep.  This felt different.  He was unsettled when he woke but knew he’d never get back to sleep.  He didn’t want his restlessness waking Pepper so he did the only thing he could think to do.

 

He tinkered. 

 

Hundreds of ideas had been jotted down.  Most were useful.  He’d already created five suits.  He had to, needed to.  Every spare second his brain was busy thinking about new designs, new innovations, new tactics.  He had to create better ways to protect.  He needed to be ready.

 

He had no idea the time but he knew he’d been in the shop for hours.  Time always disappeared when he was creating. 

 

Pepper should be awake by now.  Soon he would go upstairs and lie to her, pretending he’d woken up early because the shop was calling him.  He would watch her get dressed and kiss her goodbye before she left for work.  Then he’d come back to the shop and tinker until she got home. 

 

His life was a never-ending cycle now.

 

For now, he soldered the last bit in his latest suit’s gauntlet, letting the precision nature work ease his brain into a zen state. 

 

Jarvis’ mellow voice blended with his music.  “Upload complete.  I am now fully functional in Mark 12.”

 

“Yeah, yeah, good.”

 

If only there was a way of surrounding the world in a cocoon.  A safety net.  A cursory conversation with Bruce didn’t leave him with hope it would be attainable any time soon.  So he did what he could with his suits.  He couldn’t man them all at once but he was trying out having Jarvis remotely control multiple suits at once.  Justin Hammer and Anton Vanko had at least had a decent idea even if the execution was disastrous. 

 

Still, it never felt like enough.  Underneath his lack of sleep and nightmares and tinkering, something was clawing at him.  He couldn’t stop until it went away.  Every day felt like a fight – a fight to sleep, a fight to build, a fight to appear sane.  Well, as sane as he appeared on any given day. 

 

A fight to protect.  To protect himself, to protect the world.

 

To protect Pepper. 

 

 “Hey Jarv, add bio signature 106 to this one.”

 

“Yes, sir.”

 

“Actually,” he mused, glancing around the room as if seeing it for the first time, “add it to all of them.”

 

“Of course, sir.  And you may wish to know that Ms. Potts is now awake.”

 

He leaned back in his chair and rubbed his eyes.  This was the time of day he hated the most.  He hated lying to her.  She had made it very clear how she felt about him lying. 

 

He just didn’t know a better way of keeping her safe than tinkering.

 

* * *

 

“Are you sure you don’t want a suit?  I’m getting pretty good at building them.  Takes no time at all now.”

 

Pepper heard Tony rambling but she paid him no mind.

 

After years of wishing the man would grow up and take responsibility for his actions, he had.  No longer was she trailing behind him cleaning up his messes.  He’d found purpose and direction.  He was willing to work with others and help solve their problems instead of just his own.  The suits helped unleash what he was already capable of. 

 

She loved every handwritten letter that came to the house written by children that wanted to meet him, to be him.  It was a nice change from the letters women used to send.  At least the kids drew cute pictures. 

 

He’d become this larger than life hero who was trying desperately to fix the mistakes of his past.  Not only his mistakes but the mistakes of his father.  Lately it was going beyond that.  Lately it felt like he was going back to his old ways.

 

Not the drinking or womanizing but the self-obsessed Tony of days she’d rather forget.

 

He was retreating within himself.  He stayed in his shop for hours at time.  This wasn’t new; he’d always been married to his shop, but it felt different than before. 

 

If she didn’t seek him out, she’d swear days would go by before she finally saw him. 

 

She was frustrated.  She was frustrated and tired of his denial.

 

Tired of him feeling as though he was the only one who could save the world.

 

She was tired of the nightmares where she lost him forever.

 

She had nightmares she didn’t know how to process only to wake up and find him absent.  They lived in the same house but they may as well have lived on opposite sides of the country. 

 

Sometimes she wanted to shake him and remind him there was more to life than just his suits.  There was so much to live for rather than giving in to his fears.  She wanted him to be present again, to be alive with her rather than always looking over his shoulder for the enemy.

 

He was still Tony and she was still Pepper.  On the surface everything appeared normal and Pepper knew that’s how it would stay until it shattered from the pressure. 

 

“No, Tony,” she said sadly.  “I don’t want a suit.”

 

* * *

 

It was his most advanced suit to date but he was nowhere near finished.

 

He knew there were numerous updates to go before he would ever deem it ready for its occupant.   

 

“Sir, may I ask why you’re building a suit for Ms. Potts?  Has she changed her mind regarding the matter?”

 

The strength was superior than his own suits.  He was playing around with regenerative features but the science wasn’t quite all there yet.  Still, he liked watching the armor repair itself after being scratched.  Now if only he could finally apply that on a larger scale. 

 

Tony tapped a finger against the face mask, pondering the question.  He was fairly certain Pepper was aware he was building a suit for her but he didn’t care.  He kept no secrets from her anymore.  Well, not on purpose.  He wasn’t going to outright tell her he was building her a suit but he also wasn’t going to lie to her if she asked. 

 

“I gotta protect her, Jarv,” he told the AI.

 

After she had listened to his explanation on why he needed to continue with his suits, and then he had painstakingly listened to her explanation on why he needed to not let it consume him, they’d fallen into a nice rhythm.  They weren’t perfect but they were better.  ‘Communication’ was a word that was now prominent in his vocabulary.  It was disgusting really but he loved her.  He’d do anything for Pepper.

 

“As Pepper is so fond of telling me, I do a lot of stupid things,” he explained further.  “And maybe one day I might need her to rescue me from the shit I get myself into.”

 

Retroreflective panels and radar cloaking were the next project for the suit.  He had finally figured out how to keep the weight down but he was still tinkering with the weapon systems around them.  At least with the regenerative features, if the panels were harmed, they stood a chance of repairing themselves. 

 

However, since it was date night, he didn’t think Pepper would appreciate it if he started to work on that now. 

 

 “Let’s shut it down for the night, buddy.  I got a beautiful woman waiting for me.”

 

He picked up a clean rag and wiped the grease from his hands.

 

“Yes, sir.  Have you decided on a name for this one yet?”

 

Tony’s hands paused for a moment before throwing the rag on his workbench.  His mind ran around so many obvious choices, all of which he knew she’d hate if he ever told her.  Instead, he chose one he thought of often because it was the perfect word for her.

 

“Rescue.”

 

* * *

 

“I thought we went over this,” Pepper said to Tony.  “You would build your suits and come to bed at a reasonable time and I would pretend I’m dating a normal, well-adjusted man.”

 

She let him guide her down the steps to the new shop.  They’d been in their new Malibu home for a month now.  As soon as the land passed inspection, the building of their new home had been underway. 

 

The house wasn’t in the exact same location as their old one, but further back and to the side this time.  The design was more or less the same as the old house with both of them providing input on features they’d like, or Pepper’s case ones she wanted removed.  Most importantly, there were new specially designed support beams. 

 

While there was the compound in New York, Pepper had always felt that was more for business.  It just never felt like home when she was there.  The East Coast had long since stopped being the place she called home.  Now it was simply a place to visit for the holidays or business.

 

It felt too much like mixing business with pleasure.  She already had enough of that in her life with Tony being Iron Man.  Besides, with the Avengers somewhat in disarray at the moment, she was grateful they’d finally finished the house. 

 

Now she was home. 

 

Malibu was the place she dreamed about when she was away for months on end for business. 

 

Malibu brought her Tony.

 

He stopped mid step and turned to her.

 

“That’s hurtful,” he deadpanned.  “I’ve never been normal or well-adjusted.”

 

She leaned down and kissed him.

 

“And I love you in spite of that,” she teased.

 

He smirked and continued his pace.

 

He let them into the shop and left her off to the side while he disappeared behind a free-standing partition. 

 

Much of the layout of the shop was similar.  His cars had been delivered earlier in the week.  Dum-E and U were cleaning up a mess on the floor.  He had his latest suits on a wall to the right.  Not quite the same as the ones of the past but familiar enough to make it feel like they’d lost no time in the house at all.

 

“Here, check it out.”

 

He tossed a shirt at her that she barely managed to catch in time.  She looked down at the black shirt before looking back at him expectantly.

 

“It’s a shirt,” she said.  “Are you keeping clothes down here now or telling me you need to do laundry?”

 

He rolled his eyes.  “No, it’s part of a housing unit.”

 

He stepped in front of her and turned the shirt over.  On the front of the shirt was the outline of an arc reactor.  Or at least that’s what it looked like.  The metal was light and cold to the touch.  There appeared to be clips as if to hold something else in place on top of it.

 

Tony pulled an RT from behind his back.  She squinted at the two as her mind connected the dots.

 

“This is what you’ve been doing?  You were supposed to be resting.”

 

She had forced him to the doctor after he kept complaining about his chest.  The results had shown he had arrythmia so he’d had a pace maker put in.  Only, in true Tony Stark style, his pace maker wasn’t average.  Instead he’d designed a new RT solely for that purpose.  It didn’t sit as deeply in his chest as the reactor, for which they were both grateful after the hell they went through to repair his chest after Killian. 

 

He waved off her concerns. 

 

“Jarvis had an eye on me the whole time.  I’ve been fine,” he promised.  “And I got bored after I finished all the episodes of Game of Thrones—”

 

Her mouth dropped open.

 

“You watched without me?”

 

“—so I had to find something else to do.  Yeah, it’s addictive.  Of course I finished it.”

 

“Well, what happens to Jon Snow?  Is he okay?  Did he die?”

 

He winced.  “Do you really want me to answer that?”

 

“No!  Don’t tell me!  I’ll watch later but you better not keep dropping spoilers like last time.”

 

“Pep, come on, you’re distracting me.  Let me show you how it works.”

 

“Oh, I really don’t think –”

 

“It’s harmless,” he assured.  “No weapons. No power really.  It’s not even a whole suit.  Just a small portion to see if it works.”

 

Together, they slipped the shirt on over her head.  Tony snapped the RT in place and stepped back looking like a proud father.  Pepper loved his bright smile.  She loved seeing him in his element.

 

“Tap it.”

 

Pepper hesitantly did as she was told.  Her breath fluttered as tiny slivers of particles crept out of the unit.  She could feel them gliding up her chest to sit snuggly against her clavicle, their color creeping over to the familiar red. 

 

“It’s nano tech,” he said softly.  “The particles are interacting with the Extremis to turn it into the suit.  Right now, this is all I have completed but the idea is that I can will it into armor.”

 

“What?”

 

“The nano tech talks to Extremis, bonding with it,” he explained.  “The tech houses the suit but unless I command it to form, it stays inside here.”

 

He tapped his head for emphasis. 

 

“So how is it forming on me then?” she wondered.  “I’m not thinking about the armor.”

 

“It’s coded to you.”

 

She met his eyes.  That was Tony speak for ‘I love you.’ 

 

He had long since stabilized her Extremis with a little help from Bruce.  It was something she no longer thought about or worried over.  It was simply a part of her.  She remembered the first time she got a scrape on her body after it.  She’d almost hyperventilated, panicking over the rapidly healing cut, leaving the skin so smooth it was as though nothing happened.  Now she paid it no mind.

 

She knew there were untapped capabilities within her.  Using Tony’s suit, even just a portion of it for a few minutes, had been the most powerful feeling.  In that moment, his entire mission since Afghanistan had suddenly all made sense.

 

That was Tony’s mission, though.  Pepper liked to move in silence.  She didn’t like shaking things up for the sake of something to do. 

 

But she’d been with Tony for almost twenty years.  Tony was a man who treated chaos like a best friend he hadn’t seen in years, welcoming it with open arms every single time.  She had been able to handle everything he threw at her during those years and she’d barely flinched.  Sure, she wanted to quit a few times but it had never come to fruition. 

 

Maybe she thrived on chaos more than she realized. 

 

* * *

 

It didn’t look anything at all like she expected it to.

 

She had been around every suit.  Despite her telling him no, on several hundred occasions, she had always known he was doing the opposite.  To see the evidence was still surprising. 

 

With a deep breath, she stepped forward and allowed herself to be encased within the metal.  She wasn’t afraid of the chaos anymore. 

 

She didn’t know if she was ready for it but she wasn’t afraid.  She didn’t have a choice. 

“Jarvis, you there?”

 

“At your service, Ms. Potts, and may I say it’s lovely to see you finally using the suit.”

 

Pepper couldn’t help but chuckle.  Leave it to Jarvis to find the small positive.  Tony had always been so sure he’d wear her down enough to get her in one.  She just wished it hadn’t been in this manner.

 

“I need to get to him, Jarvis.”

 

“Of course, ma’am.  Once the system is ready, I will begin maximizing the suit’s power.  This will only take a moment.”

 

He hadn’t been crazy.

 

All those years being plagued by anxiety and looking over his shoulder and working tirelessly to create more protection hadn’t been in vain.  He hadn’t given a thought to flying off to save the world.  She knew what he was capable of.  She knew he’d come out on top.

 

Wouldn’t he?

 

He had to. 

 

His connection had been lost two days ago.  She had no idea where he was.  If he was okay.  If he was even still alive. 

 

She had to save him.  She wouldn’t let this be the end of their story.  

 

The face plate snapped into place.  The HUD lit up before her eyes. 

 

“RESCUE system online.”

* * *


End file.
